WHY ADOPT A SUSTAINABILITY APPROACH IN CAREER STUDIES? A THEORETICAL ESSAY ABOUT THE FOUNDATIONS AND THE RELEVANCE OF THE DISCUSSION

ABSTRACT Sustainability has been adopted as a perspective for understanding contemporary careers, which enables an analytical view of the reality of work by including human and social impacts. This theoretical essay discusses the foundations of sustainability as a core dimension of the sustainable career concept. As its main contributions, the career sustainability perspective offers a lens for a theoretical analysis emphasizing in a systemic and procedural way, and among other factors: the dynamics of the influence of multiple contexts for the continuity of individual paths; career continuity through time movements and the choices made; the interconnectivity of the diverse actors that influences individual careers; the need for a process which allows adaptive capability to be fostered, and the creation of opportunities for sustainability.